"I cannot understand how, within one year, without fires or other natural disasters, we can have supply for 20 years and now not enough timber for five years supply", the Shooters Fishers and Farmers Party MP said.

"The reason there was a cap of 200 on the exclusion zones for the Leadbeaters possum was so that the exact circumstance currently playing out now could be avoided, yet now we are up to 617 zones at last count" said Mr Bourman.

"Government can fix this; it is within their power to have the timber industry and environmental concerns coexist, yet it isn't happening."

Gippsland East MLA Tim Bull said at a parliamentary inquiry just two weeks ago, VicForests confirmed the amount of timber available to industry had dropped by 60,000 cubic metres per annum because of confirmed possum sightings and projected future possum colony identification, and the possum was being discovered at a rate much higher than ever anticipated by VicForests.

"In 2014 it was stated in the Leadbeater's Possum Advisory Group Technical Report that there are 204,400 hectares of potential habitat found across the range of the Leadbeater's Possum and that only 30 per cent of that area was available for potential timber harvesting," Mr Bull said.

"Surely we can undertake protection and conservation actions in the 70 per cent of range that is not available to the timber industry.

"There are 250 people employed at the Heyfield mill, while the mill's operations support 7000 jobs down the line.

"If this closure goes ahead it will have a further devastating effect on the local economy after the closures of Hazelwood and Carter Holt Harvey.

"The mill's closure will only drive up imports of appearance grade timber from countries with far less oversight that we have when we have the timber," he said.

Hermal Group management was scheduled to meet with workers on Monday afternoon, after the Gippsland Times deadline.